Combination Personal Data Assistant and Personal Computing System Dynamic Memory Reclamation

ABSTRACT

In order to continually receive messages in a dual personal computer system (PC) and personal digital assistant system (PDA) computer architecture, the PC system is deactivated to conserve battery power while the PDA continues to receive messages. As PDA memory is filled with messages, messages that are synchronized and archived with the PC system are deleted and space is freed for incoming messages. When new and non-synchronized messages completely fill the PDA memory array, the PC system is reactivated or the user is informed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

This application is related to commonly assigned patent application Ser.No. 09/740,138, filed Dec. 18, 2000 and entitled “A COMBINATION PERSONALDATA ASSISTANT AND PERSONAL COMPUTING DEVICE” having La Vaughn F. Watts,Jr. and Ronald D. Shaw as inventors.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to a computing system and moreparticularly to a mobile computing system integrating dissimilarcomputing architectures and receiving messages and files, with themessages and files arranged to conserve memory space with minimal userintervention.

2. Description of the Related Art

There are currently two popular types of mobile computing systems. Themobile Personal Computer (PC) system is a fully functional dataprocessing system, typically having the same functionality as a desktopPC or a workstation PC. The mobile PC system (PC system) can run underany number of standard operating systems (OS), such as one of thereleases of Windows® by the Microsoft Corporation. In implementing thePC system in a mobile computing architecture, several relativelyundesirable features are apparent. First, the batteries of the PC systemmust be recharged after a relatively short time, typically in the orderof a few hours. Despite improvements in battery technology, the questfor lighter and more compact portable units have tended to reduce thespace allocated to the batteries so that time between charging of thebatteries has not been significantly improved. The batteries used in thePC system, however, are capable of relatively rapid charging. As withthe desktop PC unit and the workstation PC from which they are derived,the OS needed for the PC system requires a relatively long time from theactivation of the power switch to the time when the processing system isavailable for actual computation. The PC system, however, has remarkableflexibility and can provide processing capability of extraordinarypower. PC systems also have great memory capacity, having disk drivesthat can store significant amounts of information.

More recently the personal digital assistant (PDA) system has beendeveloped to take advantage of operating systems (OS) such as Palm® OSand Windows® CE. These operating systems, in conjunction with a PDAsystem, permit a reduced or specialized functionality computing system.

PDA systems are relatively small in physical size and can perform avariety of useful functions such as arrange calendars; scheduleappointments; send and receive e-mail; provide presentations; createdocuments; and provide communications. The PDA OS can permit exchange offiles between the PDA systems and a PC system with Microsoft Windows®files. While the reduced functionality can be a disadvantage of the PDAsystem, the PDA system has several advantages. An advantage is the timebetween charging of the batteries can be greatly extended, a result ofthe reduced functionality and the absence of disk storage units. The PDAsystem has its memory loaded in a memory circuit, such as a flashmemory, which allows the PDA system to become active much quicker than aPC system. This memory, however, has limited capacity and can quickly befilled up.

Current PC systems and PDA systems have the capability to communicateand receive messages such as email, particular through wirelesscommunication technologies. The PC systems with their large memorycapacity can receive and store a great number of messages before memoryspace is exhausted. PC systems, however, with their draining powerrequirement cannot continuously be left on while in battery mode.Therefore a PC system is limited in the number of messages it receivesbecause it cannot continually be left on. A PDA system with its lowbattery consumption has the capability to remain on for a very longtime. A PDA system, however, with its limited memory capacity canquickly run out of memory. Without operator intervention, a PDA systemwith its memory capacity fully filled, is not able to receive incomingmessages. Therefore current PC systems and PDA systems are limited intheir abilities to receive incoming messages such as email.

A need has been felt for a mobile computing architecture having thedesirable features of both the PC systems and of the PDA systems. Inparticular, the computing architecture would have the feature of anexpanded time between battery charges. Another feature of the computingarchitecture would be the ability to continually receive incomingmessages such as email and store messages until a user reads themessages. Yet another feature would be provide for a computingarchitecture that archives messages and allows incoming messages to becontinually received with minimal user intervention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The aforementioned and other features are accomplished, according to thepresent invention, by providing a mobile computing architecture thatincludes a PC system and a PDA system which independently have access toa communication device, allowing either system to communicate andreceive messages regardless of the active state of the other system.

Messages are synchronized between the PDA system and the PC system soeither system is able to read messages that have been received by theother system. The PC system with its large memory capacity is able toarchive and store messages, therefore the PDA is able to free up memoryspace by deleting records whenever its memory is filled and new messagesare unable to be stored.

To conserve battery power, the PC system is deactivated or placed in asuspend state while the PDA system continues to receive messages. As thememory of the PDA system is filled with new non-synchronized messages,synchronized messages in the PDA memory are automatically deleted. Whenthe PDA memory array is filled with new non-synchronized messages the PCsystem can be activated to synchronize messages, archive messages, andclear messages in order to free up space for incoming messages. The usermay also be informed to read new messages and take action to free upspace.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention may be better understood, and it's numerousobjects, features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in theart by referencing the accompanying drawings. The use of the samereference number throughout the figures designates a like or similarelement.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a personal computer (PC) system.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a personal digital assistant (PDA)system.

FIG. 3 illustrates a combined PC and PDA computing architecture.

FIG. 4 illustrates a combined PC and PDA computing architecture thatprovides communication access to either the PC system or the PDA system.

FIG. 5A illustrates a memory array for a PDA system synchronized to amemory array for a PC system.

FIG. 5B illustrates filled memory arrays for the PC system and the PDAsystem.

FIG. 5C illustrates cleared and empty records of memory arrays for thePC system and the PDA system.

FIG. 5D illustrates a PDA memory array and a PC memory with synchronizedand non-synchronized records.

FIG. 5E illustrates a PDA memory array 500 with free space and an emptyPC memory array 530.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and will herein be described in detail, itshould be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to limit the invention to theparticular form disclosed but on the contrary, the intention is to coverall modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within thespirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appendedclaims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Now referring to FIG. 1 illustrated is a block diagram of a PC system.The PC system of FIG. 1 is typical of systems based on the IntelPentium® and equivalent type processors. A PC CPU 100 is connected by abus 115 to a north bridge controller 105. Bus 115 typically is aperipheral component interconnect (PCI) bus. The north bridge controller105 interfaces to a system memory 125. Between the system memory 125 andthe north bridge controller 105 is a cache memory 135. The cache memory135 is used as “temporary” memory, particularly in displayinginformation to a user. From the north bridge controller 105 is a southbridge controller 110 used to interface to peripheral or input output(IO) devices. A bus 120 connects the north bridge controller 105 to thesouth bridge controller 110. The bus 120 is also typically a PCI bus.From the south bridge controller a bus 130 connects peripheral or IOdevices. Bus 130 can be a PCI bus.

Now referring to FIG. 2 illustrated is a block diagram of a PDA system.In a PDA system a PDA CPU 200 interfaces to a companion processor 205.The companion processor 205 handles interfacing to peripherals and to asystem memory 210. From the companion processor 205 is a bus 215. Bus215 can be a low pin count (LPC) bus and communicate to peripherals andIO devices.

Now referring to FIG. 3 illustrated is a combined PC and PDA computingarchitecture. A PC system 300 is connected to a switch 310 by a bus 345.The bus 345 can be an LPC bus. The switch 310 is connected to a PDAsystem 305 by a bus 350. The bus 350 can also be an LPC bus. Either thePC system 300 or the PDA system 305 can have control over the commonperipherals and 10 devices, including a display 320. The switch 310isolates either the PC system 300 or the PDA system 305, placing one ofthe systems in control of the entire computer system. Input and outputcontrol is conducted through a serial or super input output controller(SIO) 325. The SIO 325 is connected to the PDA system 305 by the bus 350and another bus 355. Bus 350 allows the PC system 300 to interface tothe SIO 325 and the PDA system 305, with the PC system 300 acting as a“master” device and the PDA system 305 as a “slave.” When the PDA system305 is in control of the computing architecture, the PDA system 305communicates to the SIO 325 by a bus 355. The bus 355 can be an LPC bus.The SIO 325 provides video control to the display 320 by bus 335 wheneither the PC system 300 or the PDA system 305 is in control. When incontrol, the PDA system 305 provides video content by way of bus 340.When the PC system 300 is in control of the computing architecture videocontent is provided by way of bus 330. Other embodiments of thearchitecture can include providing a separate and independent connectionby way of busses to other common devices from the PC system 300 and thePDA system 305. Common devices can include wireless communicationtechnologies.

Now referring to FIG. 4, illustrated is a combined PC and PDA computingarchitecture that provides communication access to either the PC systemor the PDA system. In a PC system the south bridge controller candirectly connect to a communication device 400 by the PCI bus 130. In aPDA system the companion processor 205 can be connected to thecommunication device 400 by the LPC bus 215. This computing architectureallows either the PC system or the PDA system to have access tocommunication, in particular wireless technology. Access by either thePC system or the PDA system is possible, regardless of the active statusof either system. Therefore if the PDA system is off, the PC system isable to receive messages such as email. If the PC system is off, the PDAsystem is able to receive messages.

Referring back to FIG. 3, the PC system 300 and the PDA system 305 areconnected by the bus 345 and the bus 350, and are able to exchange databetween their respective memory. Further the connection allows bothsystems to synchronize messages that are received and eventuallyarchived in the memory of the PC system 300 or the PDA system 305.Considering the limited memory capacity of the PDA system 305, archivingmessages would best be undertaken by the PC system 300 with itssignificantly larger memory.

Now referring to FIG. 5A illustrated is a memory array for a PDA systemsynchronized to a memory array for a PC system. A PDA memory array 500has several records for messages such as email or information. A PCmemory array 530 has corresponding records to store or refer to messagesor information. The records of the memory arrays may be read or unreadby a user. The PC memory array 530 may be a separate logical or physicaldevice to the PC system hard drive (permanent storage unit). Thereforein certain embodiments, the PDA memory array 500 is synchronizeddirectly to the PC system hard drive.

The PC system with its large capacity storage has the ability to clearrecords in its memory array 530 and place messages in its hard drive.Since the PDA memory array 500 and PC memory array 530 are synchronizedwhenever the PC memory array 530 retrieves messages from the hard drive,the PDA memory array 500 is able to read the messages. In thisparticular example, “Record 1” 512 of PDA memory array 500 issynchronized to “Record 1” 532 of PC memory array 530. Going down eachmemory array, “Record 2” 514 is synchronized to “Record 2” 534; “RecordN” 516 is synchronized to “Record N” 536; and “Record N+1” 518 issynchronized to “Record N+1” 538. A direct one to one correspondence ofeach record of the respective memory arrays of the PDA and PC system ismade available. In this particular example “Record N+1” 518 of PDAmemory array 500 is empty and available to receive a new message,therefore “Record N+1” 538 the corresponding record of PC memory array530 is also empty. “Record N+P” 520 and “Record N+P” 540 are also empty.In this particular embodiment the records that are empty are notsynchronized until a message is received or placed in the correspondingrecord of the other system's memory array. In this embodiment, thememory array of the respective systems are filled from the first recordto the last, in this case the last record is “Record N+P” 520 of PDAmemory array 500 and “Record N+P” 540 of PC memory array 530.

Now referring to FIG. 5B illustrated are filled memory arrays for the PCsystem and the PDA system. As messages are received by either system thememory arrays fill up until the end of memory (EOM) of each array isreached. In the case of the PDA memory array 500 the EOM 522 is after“Record N+P” 520, and for the PC memory array 530, the EOM 630 is after“Record N+P” 542.

In order to receive new messages such as email, the record arrays mustbe cleared. Now referring to FIG. 5C illustrated are cleared and emptyrecords of memory arrays for the PC system and the PDA system. Incertain applications, the first records such as “Record 1” 512, “Record1” 532, “Record 2” 514, and “Record 2” 534 are cleared and emptied toprovide for incoming messages. The records are deleted after the oldmessages that occupied the records are placed in the hard drive of thePC system. With the empty records, new messages may be received byeither system then the filled records are synchronized withcorresponding records of the memory array of the other system.

When the PC system is active, the computing architecture is able todetermine when the memory arrays are completely filled and all recordsare occupied. The PC system can request that the user archive into thehard disk selected records, delete those selected records from thememory arrays, thus providing empty records in which new messages can bereceived. An alternative method would be to automatically, without userintervention, archive and delete the oldest records first.

When the PC is inactive, and the PDA is receiving incoming messages,there is a greater concern of running out of records in the PDA memoryarray 500. A typical scenario is the following. In order to save batterypower, the PC system is made inactive or placed into a suspend state.The PC system is not able to receive messages, however, the computerarchitecture is able to continue receiving messages through the PDAsystem. Messages come in, take up record space, and without someoperator intervention, accumulate, and fill up the PDA memory array 500.New messages cannot be received until messages are deleted and recordsclear. A predetermined method to delete old messages to free up recordsto receive new messages can be arranged. This arrangement however,presents a problem when a user has not read all of the messages andolder unread messages are deleted without the user saving or having theopportunity to read the message.

Now referring to FIG. 5D illustrated are a PDA memory array and a PCmemory with synchronized and non-synchronized records. When the PCsystem is inactive, the PDA system continues to receive messages and itsrecords are filled with the messages. Since the PC system is inactive,the records of PC memory array 530 that correspond to records of PDAmemory array 500 that are filled with new messages are not synchronized.“Record 1” 512 of PDA memory array 500 is not synchronized to “Record 1”532 of PC memory array 530. Therefore “Record 1” 532 is “empty” andcontains no message (information). As new messages are received by thePDA system, while the PC is inactive the records fill up, however, onlythe records in PDA memory array 500 are filled. Illustrated is a filledPDA memory array 500. “Record 1” 512, “Record 2” 514, and all records upto and including “Record N” are filled records in PDA memory array 500.These new messages contained in PDA memory array 500, however, are notsynchronized with their corresponding records in PC memory array 530which are “Record 1” 532, “Record 2” 534 up to and including “Record N”536. In this particular example, “Record N+1” 518 of PDA memory array500 is synchronized to “Record N+1” 538 of PC memory array 530. And allrecords up to and including “Record N+P” 520 of PDA memory array 500 aresynchronized with “Record N+P” 540 of PC memory array 530.

Since the PC memory array 500 can archive old messages into hard drivememory, the older synchronized files can be archived and the recordsdeleted, thus freeing up space for new messages. Now referring to FIG.5E illustrated is PDA memory array 500 with free space and an empty PCmemory array 530. After archiving the messages of the synchronizedrecords, in this particular example, “Record N+1” 538 up to andincluding “Record N+P” 540 of PC memory array 500, the records “RecordN+1” 518 up to and including “Record N+P” 520 of PDA memory array 500are deleted, freeing up these records in order to receive new messages.The user can be made aware that messages have been deleted from the PDAsystem, and that they may be retrieved since they have been archived inthe PC system.

This archiving and deletion process takes place until all the records ofthe PDA memory array 500 are filled. This process occurs while the PCsystem is inactive or suspended. When the PC system is activated,synchronization of the records can take place. As the PDA system remainsactive and receiving messages, and the PC system remains inactive, thePDA memory array 530 fills up with non-synchronized messages. When theEOM 522 of PDA memory array 530 is reached, the PDA system can eitherlook to a predetermined preference to delete records and provide spacefor incoming messages or the PDA system can alert the user that the PDAmemory array 500 is filled and request action from the user.

In order to avoid having the user manually look at, read, and selectrecords to delete from the PDA memory array 500, the following can takeplace. The PDA system can activate or wake up from a suspend state thePC system when PDA memory array 500 is full. As the PC system is awoken,records from the PDA memory array 500 are synchronized to the PC memoryarray 530. As files are synchronized, records from the PDA memory array500 are erased and the space made available for new messages.Alternatively, the PDA system can stop receiving messages and allow theuser to read the messages, and delete the messages from the recordsafter they have been read.

Variations of the synchronization process can include providing alertsto the user as to messages that are being deleted from the memoryarrays. The user can also be informed of actions that are needed to betaken such as reading messages or manually activating the PC system. Aprovision can be made for the PDA memory array 500 to contain headersfor the records contained therein. The headers of the individual recordsare used to identify that messages have been purged and archived to thePC system memory. The user also is made aware that the messages can beretrieved from the PC system memory. Embodiments of the invention caninclude provision for the user to set preferences as to messages thatmay be received and stored in the PDA memory array 500 without purging.Also the preference can include automatically purging certain messages.A flag may be set for incoming messages which identifies them asimportant messages that require the user's attention. Alternatively,“junk e-mail” or other unwanted messages without a special flag,messages that would take up valuable record space in the PDA memoryarray, may be automatically purged and sent or not sent to the PC systemmemory.

Although the present invention has been described in connection withseveral embodiments, the invention is not intended to be limited to thespecific forms set forth herein, but on the contrary, it is intended tocover such alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as can bereasonably included with in the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the appended claims.

1-27. (canceled)
 28. A mobile computing system comprising: a commoncommunication device; a personal computing system (PC) coupled to thecommon communication device, the PC including a storage device capableof receiving and storing messages from the communication device; apersonal digital assistant system (PDA) coupled to the commoncommunication device, the PDA including a storage device capablereceiving and storing messages from the communication device, wherebythe storage device of the PC is capable of synchronizing messagesreceived from the common communication device with the storage device ofthe PDA, and wherein the PC and the PDA are capable of controlling thecommon communication device, but one of the PC and the PDA controllingthe common-communication device at a given time; access by either the PCor the PDA to the common communication device is possible regardless ofan active status of either the PC or the PDA; and, when the PC isactive, determining whether to archive selected messages stored on thestorage device of the PC to non volatile storage.
 29. The mobilecomputing system of claim 28 wherein the storage device of the PC is amemory array comprised of a set of records, and the storage device ofthe PDA is a memory array comprised of a set of records.
 30. The mobilecomputing system of claim 29 wherein a direct correspondence isestablished between the set of records of the PC memory array and theset of records of the PDA memory array.
 31. The mobile computing systemof claim 29 wherein messages are synchronized between the memory arrayof the PC and the memory array of the PDA.
 32. The mobile computingsystem of claim 30 wherein messages are synchronized between records ofthe PC memory array and records of the PDA memory array.
 33. The mobilecomputing system of claim 28 wherein the storage device of the PC is ahard disk drive.
 34. The mobile computing system of claim 33 wherein thehard disk drive is comprised of a memory array, and the PDA storagedevice is comprised of a memory array, wherein the PC hard disk drivememory array corresponds directly to the PDA memory array.
 35. A mobilecomputing system comprising: a common communication device; a personalcomputing system (PC) coupled to the common communication device, the PCcapable of receiving messages through the common communication device; apersonal digital assistant system (PDA) coupled to the commoncommunication device, the PDA capable of receiving messages through thecommon communication device and synchronizing the messages receivedthrough the common communication device with the PC, and wherein the PCand the PDA are capable of controlling the common communication device,but one of the PC and the PDA controlling the common communicationdevice at a given time; access by either the PC or the PDA to the commoncommunication device is possible regardless of an active status ofeither the PC or the PDA; and, when the PC is active, determiningwhether to archive selected messages stored on the storage device of thePC to non volatile storage.
 36. The mobile computing system of claim 35wherein the PDA is further comprised of a memory array where messagesare received and entered, and the memory array is synchronized to thePC.
 37. The mobile computing system of claim 36 wherein the PC isfurther comprised of a memory array that is synchronized to the memoryarray of the PDA.
 38. The mobile computing system of claim 36 whereinthe PC is further comprised of a hard disk drive that is synchronized tothe memory array of the PDA.
 39. A method of clearing and archivingmessages in a dual system computer architecture, the dual systemcomputer architecture including a first computer system coupled to acommon communication device and a second computer system coupled to athe common communication device, the first computer system and thesecond computer system being capable of controlling the commoncommunication device with one of the first computer system and thesecond computer system controlling the common-communication device at agiven time, access by either the first computer system or the secondcomputer system to the common communication device is possibleregardless of an active status of either the first computer system orthe second computer system, the method comprising: receiving and storingmessages by the first computer system to a first memory device;synchronizing the messages with the second computer system, whereby thesecond computer system archives synchronized messages to a second memorydevice; and deleting synchronized and archived messages whenever thefirst memory device is filled.
 40. The method of clearing and archivingmessages in a dual system computer architecture of claim 39 furthercomprising: identifying the deleted messages in the first memorydevices.
 41. The method of clearing and archiving messages in a dualsystem computer architecture of claim 39 wherein the first computersystem is a personal digital assistant system (PDA) and the secondcomputer system is a personal computer system (PC).
 42. The method ofclearing and archiving messages in a dual system computer architectureof claim 40 wherein the first computer system is a personal digitalassistant system (PDA) and the second computer system is a personalcomputer system (PC).
 43. A method of clearing and archiving messages ina dual system computer architecture, the dual system computerarchitecture including a first computer system coupled to a commoncommunication device and a second computer system coupled to the commoncommunication device, the first computer system and the second computersystem being capable of controlling the common communication device withone of the first computer system and the second computer systemcontrolling the common-communication device at a given time, access byeither the first computer system or the second computer system to thecommon communication device is possible regardless of an active statusof either the first computer system or the second computer system, themethod comprising: receiving and storing messages by the first computersystem to a first memory device; synchronizing the messages with thesecond computer system, whereby the second computer system archivessynchronized messages to a second memory device; and informing a userwhenever the first memory device is filled.
 44. The method of clearingand archiving messages in a dual system computer architecture of claim41 further comprised of: deleting messages from the first memory deviceafter the messages have been read by the user.
 45. The method ofclearing and archiving messages in a dual system computer architectureof claim 43 wherein the first computer system is a personal digitalassistant (PDA) and the second computer system is a personal computersystem (PC).
 46. The method of clearing and archiving messages in a dualsystem computer architecture of claim 44 wherein the first computersystem is a personal digital assistant (PDA) and the second computersystem is a personal computer system (PC).
 47. The method of clearingand archiving messages in a dual system computer architecture of claim39 further comprised of: setting preferences as to received and storedmessages.
 48. The method of clearing and archiving messages in a dualsystem computer architecture of claim 40 further comprised of: settingpreferences as to received and stored messages.
 49. The method ofclearing and archiving messages in a dual system computer architectureof claim 41 further comprised of: setting preferences as to received andstored messages.
 50. The method of clearing and archiving messages in adual system computer architecture of claim 42 further comprised of:setting preferences as to received and stored messages.
 51. The methodof clearing and archiving messages in a dual system computerarchitecture of claim 43 further comprised of: setting preferences as toreceived and stored messages.
 52. The method of clearing and archivingmessages in a dual system computer architecture of claim 44 furthercomprised of: setting preferences as to received and stored messages.53. The method of clearing and archiving messages in a dual systemcomputer architecture of claim 48 further comprised of: settingpreferences as to received and stored messages.
 54. The method ofclearing and archiving messages in a dual system computer architectureof claim 49 further comprised of: setting preferences as to received andstored messages.